Pakistani PM Offers Joint Afghan Border Patrols

Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said that his country was willing to set up joint patrols with Afghanistan to combat militants along their porous border.

“Whatever it takes to fight terrorism … Pakistan is totally open to that,” Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said. He denied Pakistan was harboring militants, insisting it was “fighting agents of chaos.”

Abbasi added that Pakistan was willing to kickstart a raft of measures to increase security along the border with Afghanistan and improve its rocky relationship with its neighbor. “We will put up a fence there, the Afghans are welcome to put up another fence on their side.”

Last month, President Donald Trump called on Pakistan to do more to eliminate militant sanctuaries, a longstanding U.S. demand, as he announced a new strategy to try to win the 16-year war in Afghanistan.

Mr Abbasi said his government had yet to receive any specific demands from the Trump administration, adding that Pakistan would act on any information shared by US authorities.

“We don’t think the Pakistani-US relationship will be defined by Afghanistan,” the Pakistani prime minister said.

Pakistan has launched several military operations to clear out militant hideouts from the northern tribal areas near Afghanistan’s border. But US and Afghanistan claim the actions have been more focused on Pakistani Taliban, militants that have challenged the Pakistani state.